Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man

Our Review

The most venomous cartoon of the ’90s: Jason Alexander voices Eric T. Duckman, a private-dick fowl — an incompetent, lecherous, shrieking deadbeat single parent raising three sons with the help of Fluffy and Uranus, a pair of teddy-bear office assistants he destroys weekly. Created by Everett Peck and developed with animation-world all-stars, it ran on USA’s late-night block and treated hypocrisy as a personal enemy.

The satire was ahead of its time — Duckman is a deliberately ugly protagonist whose rants the show both indulges and indicts — and the voice cast (Alexander going full George, Gregg Berger’s ultra-competent Cornfed Pig making Duckman look worse by comparison, Nancy Travis as the kingpin beekeeper sister-in-law) is elite. Episodes like the real-time dinner party show formal daring you rarely saw in TV animation. Canceled after four seasons; the campaign to revive it never stopped.

Verdict: Watch it. The missing link between Married with Children and Rick and Morty.